


A Casual Affair

by BlackDog9314



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Awkward!Cas, Bookstore AU, Dean wears beanies and makes things, Gen, M/M, Shop Owner!Dean, They are both adorable and it's almost midnight here, bookshop au, hipster!Dean, writer!Cas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 03:45:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6103756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackDog9314/pseuds/BlackDog9314
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a Thursday, and Cas is going to go into the bookstore today and buy something, even if it's just one of those cheap paper bookmarks that has the first letter of his name on it.</p><p>(In which Cas has a crush on the gorgeous man who runs a small bookstore)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Casual Affair

It's a Thursday, and Cas is going to go into the book store today and buy something, even if it's just one of those cheap paper bookmarks that has the first letter of his name on it. He's walked past the shop every other day for the past six weeks, and casually (super casually, he thinks) peered through the dusty windows to catch a glimpse of the light-haired man usually inside. Most of the time he's  rearranging the display near the old-fashioned cash register or watering the flowering plants which stretch longingly toward the far window in their gaily-painted pots. Other times the man is sipping coffee from what looks like a handmade mug or drawing elaborate designs in colored chalk on the blackboard nailed behind the front counter, decorating it with quotes both famous and obscure that change every two or three days.

  
Sometimes there are two men in the store, and the other is very tall with shaggy, chestnut hair and an easy smile. They seem comfortable with one another, not that Cas looks at them that often (okay, he does, but he's _very_ discreet about it).

  
The entire first week or so that Cas made a habit of passing the little shop he'd wondered if the two men were dating, but didn't have to wonder for long when he saw the tall man exit the store holding the hand of a pretty blonde woman. Since then Cas has assumed that they are simply friends or relatives.

  
The man Cas watches through the window almost always wears a beanie, and Cas only knows the color of his hair because of how often he walks by the shop for a look; he's seen it poking out in sand-colored, unruly tufts from the soft grey and the faded blacks of the slouched hats he wears. The light-haired man also wears dark-framed, square glasses that are forever falling down the bridge of his perfectly-formed nose, and his shirts look old and comfortable.

  
He looks like he could be on a billboard for Calvin Klein, yet he works in a bookstore bedecked with hand-painted stepping stones in its front and a peeling door covered in aluminum signage straight out of the sixties.

  
Cas has seen this man blush enough times to commit the soft shade of apricot to memory, and once watched him for almost five minutes from the street as he unloaded boxes of books sent from the nearby school. Cas had ached at the sight of the other man's sure movements, the gentleness of his fingers as they put each book just where it needed to go on the mismatched shelves.

  
But, Cas reminds himself, he isn't going to make it obvious that he wants to talk to the man. He's going to go inside, browse for a few minutes, get something and leave. Then perhaps he will come back another day and stay longer, maybe even ask the man his name, if he owns the store or simply works there.

Cas takes a deep breath and opens the door to the store, the antique brass of the knob warm under his hand from the lazy summer sun.

The man is alone, and Cas wishes he could pump a fist into the air at the knowledge, but he reigns himself in.

He will be casual. Casual interest is not a hard thing to fake, he tells himself.

  
The store is blessedly cool inside, and Cas realizes then that he is sweating.

  
The light-haired man turns to Cas and smiles, and the first thing out of Cas's mouth at the sight is, "Your eyes are green."

  
The man laughs softly and looks down at his hands for a second, "Uh...yeah. They are."

  
Cas wants to slap himself in the face, can already feel heat flooding his cheeks.  
_So much for insouciant interest._

  
The man is wearing a forest-green beanie today, and Cas feels ashamed that he knows it to be new simply because he hasn't seen it already (he might have lied when he said he'd simply been discreetly observing).

  
"Don't you work at the university?" the man is asking Cas, his cheeks the gentle shade of peach-pink Cas has imagined in the sunlight, outside of the comforting darkness of the shop.

  
"Oh, I--yes. I do. How did you...?" Cas isn't sure what to say to that.

  
"My brother took a class with you last year and he lets me read the books he gets for class. I...I liked yours. I actually have it here, you know," the man says hastily.

  
He has freckles, and they are beautiful.

  
"You read my--my book?" Cas is realizing then why the other man he's seen at the shop has always looked vaguely familiar, and wants to laugh at the smallness of the universe at that moment.

  
"Yeah! I love the way you depict loneliness. It's so...unassuming. Well, shit, I don't know if that made sense. It just...it feels so deep and...and fathomless, yet all you do is talk about some guy feeding a cat or a lady pretending she's asking someone else what they want when she's ordering takeout over the phone."

The man is looking down at his feet and Cas wishes he wouldn't.

  
"No, thank you! I write mostly from my own experiences," after the words leave his lips Cas has another urge to slap himself in the face.

He basically just told the man he's been stalking for a month that he's a pathetic loser that writes about the small, sad moments of everyday life in vivid prose. He's finally found someone who seems to understand his work, and has effectively lost any mystery or 'cool' factor he might have had.

But the man is nodding solemnly, not awkwardly backing away from Cas like the social pariah he is.

  
"It feels...real," the man says quietly, his green eyes intense.

  
And just like that, Cas is extending his hand, a smile warm on his lips.

  
"I'm Castiel, resident cat owner and loner."

  
"I'm Dean, the guy who owns a secondhand bookshop and has been waiting for you to come in for weeks."

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! Comments and kudos appreciated more than you will ever know.


End file.
